Up to you to decide how we move forwardLITTLE ROCK — Arkansas is one of 24 states where if one gathers enough signatures, their issue can appear on the November ballot. A citizen-led initiative can either be in the form of an initiated act or a constitutional amendment. This November, you may see a few citizen-led initiatives on the ballot, and you will also find a proposed constitutional amendment that could impact the process for future initiatives. Issue number 2 was one of the ...

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Arkansas House of RepresentativesThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

Change coming to immunization requirementsLITTLE ROCK — Under new immunization requirements being considered by the state Board of Health, children who will be 11 or older on Sept. 1 must have a Tdap shot in order to attend a public or a private school. The Tdap shot protects against tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis. Parents will be in compliance with Board of Health requirements if they have been taking their children to their family physician to receive their shots, as recommended ...

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State Capitol Week in ReviewThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

Are black voters turning against Obama?It may be too soon to label it a trend and there is insufficient data to confirm it, but President Obama and his party may be losing their iron grip on their most loyal and enthusiastic voting bloc: African-Americans. Last Friday in Chicago, a group of black residents of the city’s South Side, staged a protest against the violent shootings that are becoming as commonplace as White Sox games at Cellular Field. It wasn’t just the protest that sh...

The best of both worldsIf you have read my column for very long, you know that my passion is literacy. Several years ago I came to the stark realization that without good literacy skills, a person in our modern society does not have a prayer with regards to achieving success. Being able to read and write and communicate effectively is the basis for all education. and I don’t have to tell you our nation has lost ground over the past several decades with regards to ha...

Lawsuits and impeachmentWhenever Democrats are in real trouble politically, the Republicans seem to come up with something new that distracts the public’s attention from the Democrats’ problems. Who says Republicans are not compassionate? With public opinion polls showing President Obama’s sinking approval rate, in the wake of his administration’s multiple fiascoes and scandals — the disgraceful treatment of veterans who need medical care, the Internal Revenue Servic...

Virtues require underlying frameworkThis summer has served as a reminder to me about the virtue of virtues, specifically hard work and perseverance. Last winter, our 12-year-old son, Robert, was accepted into an honors performance group as a string bass player, based on his teacher’s recommendation and an MP3 submission of his playing. In May, he was sent four pieces of music to master by late June, when he was to perform them in New York. It was not easy. The music arrived late...

Which approaches would stabilize the debt?Is it possible to bring the government’s debt under control by focusing only on one area — raising taxes, for example, or cutting defense spending? Let’s return to the Debt Stabilizer to find out. I wrote last week about the Debt Stabilizer, an online tool created by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (crfb.org) that lets average citizens make tax and spending choices — hopefully better ones than Congress has made — in order to red...

Third-party candidates may hamper political debatesThe state’s general election campaign really got under way Friday with a series of debates sponsored by the Arkansas Press Association during its annual convention in Hot Springs. We’ve been hammered by television commercials castigating candidates for U.S. senator and governor — thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court for that. But we haven’t had any occasions to compare the candidates face to face, word for word. We’ll have to wait a while longer f...

Firewise continues to combat wildfiresLITTLE ROCK — Even though wildfires got off to an alarming start earlier this year, the threat of wildfire danger across Arkansas has fortunately lessened. But because of many factors, including storm damage, many areas are still at risk. In an effort to prevent fires in our state, the Arkansas Forestry Commission continues encouraging communities to join the National Fire Protection Association’s Firewise program. The Commission’s Firewise te...

Setback for medical pot pushLITTLE ROCK — In 2012, by the slimmest of margins, Arkansas missed being the first state in the South to legalize medical marijuana — less than 2 percent. Nearly two years later, another push to legalize the drug failed to even muster enough signatures to place the issue on the ballot. It’d be easy to call this a sign that the uphill battle to legalize medical marijuana had already hit its peak in a Bible Belt state where nearly half the count...

Breathing the breath of lifeA 17-year-old high school graduate finally awoke from anesthesia on the afternoon of June 6, 2011. While most guys his age were sitting in bean-bag chairs playing video games, he had undergone a two-hour surgical procedure to repair a severely collapsed lung. His parents and aunt looked on anxiously as his eyes slowly opened. A silly grin stretched across his face as he lifted his hand to form a “thumbs up” gesture and signaled he was going to...

To residents of the Crow Mountain Fire DistrictI am thankful for all volunteers who serve in any capacity in our fire district and county. They give of their time and energy and should be commended for their service. However, I would like to share some information and thoughts particularly with the residents of the Crow Mountain Fire Protection District. The Crow Mountain Fire Protection District Board recently raised its assessments by 300 percent, from $20 to $80 annually. The assessment...

Whoops! Police say tow truck tried to snag cop carWhoops! Authorities said Thursday they arrested the owner of Whoops Towing as he tried to haul off an undercover police car in Oregon. Michael Alan Selmer, 35, of Falls City, who has spent much of the past decade in prison over several scams, was taken into custody after police got reports that a towing business was operating without a certificate, posting impound warning signs in parking lots, and using a spotter to generate tows, authorities...

Murder on iceIn the fall of 1991, two German tourists found a body on the east ridge of the Otztal Alps on the Austrian-Italian border while hiking through the mountains. On a whim, they decided to go off the path and there it was — slumped forward, face-down in a puddle, with its arm folded beneath its body. When they returned with police, it was discovered that their body wasn’t fresh — it was a near-perfectly preserved corpse, half frozen in ice. X-rays...

Amendments placed on the November ballotIn a few short months, Arkansans will be heading to the polls to cast a ballot for our next governor, our U.S. senator, our next attorney general and many more state wide officers. Arkansans will also be deciding who they want to represent their district in the state Capitol and in our nation’s Capitol. Often times, when so many highly publicized campaigns are taking place, ballot issues can be easily overlooked. Amending our Constitution is n...

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Arkansas House of RepresentativesThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

Revenue surplus at nearly $79MLITTLE ROCK — Thanks to very conservative budgeting by the Arkansas legislature, state government ended Fiscal Year 2014 with a surplus of almost $79 million. The state already had almost $96 million in unobligated funds left over from previous surpluses. Also, between now and the end of Fiscal Year 2015, which just began on July 1, the state is expected to gain an additional $5 million in interest earnings. That will be added to the surplus. ...

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State Capitol Week in ReviewThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

Are you God's wife?The late Leo Buscaglia (1924-98), also known as “Dr. Love,” was a wonderful human being. He was an American author, lecturer and professor, and for many years was employed in the Special Education department at the University of Southern California. I once heard him speak in Chicago back in the early 1970s. On this day you could just feel the love in that meeting room. God gives us all some special gift, and He blessed Dr. Buscaglia with the r...

Chicago: A town that won’t let you down?Frank Sinatra’s song about Chicago, “My Kind of Town,” “a the town that won’t let you down,” seems dated in light of last weekend’s shooting spree that left 16 dead and dozens wounded in 53 separate incidents. According to the Chicago Tribune, “The victims were among 82 people shot between Thursday afternoon and early Monday.” Chicago wasn’t alone in the Independence Day violence. New York City and Detroit combined for 10 dead in 46 shootings,...

Owner calls 911 after Florida cat goes wildIt has happened again. A 4-year-old Russian blue cat named Kush is being quarantined after apparently going berserk inside a central Florida home, prompting its owners to call 911. Police say the feline scratched owners Teresa and James Gregory on their arms and legs Saturday, causing the couple to retreat to a bedroom, where they called 911. The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported Teresa Gregory told the dispatcher she had mistakenly stepped ...

President Obama should go down to borderBased on this fiscal year’s eight-and-a-half months of activity so far, the number of unaccompanied alien children from Honduras apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol will increase 22 times from what it was in 2009. That’s a jump from fewer than 1,000 children five years ago to more than 21,000 this year. Similar increases are predicted for unaccompanied alien children from Guatemala — from 1,115 in 2009 to a projected 17,887 — and a 13-fold i...